Family

The children, who drank the sports drink and ate rice gruel, suddenly seemed to be in good health.

I served them gentle on the stomach Udon in the morning of the second day, to see how they were doing, and I judged that they could eat solid foods now, so I was thinking of serving them something that will settle in their stomachs for lunch.

They were still bony, but the hollows in their eyes were gone, their hair was shiny, and they had recovered enough to be able to walk around the room, so at their request, I decided to give them a short tour of the house.

“If you find yourselves out of breath, you can always take a break, okay?”

“It’s fine. My body strangely feels better than I have ever felt in my whole life!”
“I feel the same way as Lui.”

I’m glad to hear that Master House’s health maintenance was working for them

Is Arthur a little shy? He doesn’t talk much. He seems to be in good health, and I hope he continues to eat a lot and grow to look how a child should look.

“Let’s start with the first floor. This is the hall right after the entrance. The room to the right of the entrance is the waiting room, where guests are first let in. The room to the left is the study, and next to it is the parlor. The room across the hall is a small dining room. We always eat there, so please go there at meal time.”
“”O, okay…””

They seemed somewhat confused, but I decided to hear their questions later and continued explaining.

“Next to the dining room is the main dining room, which is used when guests come in, and behind that is the pantry, and behind that is the staircase, and further back is the kitchen. There are various other rooms, but I don’t use them much. Now that you two are part of the family, you can explore the house and play. There are no restrictions on what you can and can’t enter. Oh, the house grows in size sometimes, so don’t be alarmed.”
“”???””

They were making faces that were asking, “What do you mean!?” So I told them I will explain in detail later, and we moved to the garden next.

“Are you tired? Let’s take a short break.”

We moved to the terrace and sat them down on chairs.

“It’s a little hot today, so I’ll bring you some cold barley tea.”

I left them and went to the kitchen to make a pot of barley tea, and when I returned, both Lui and Arthur were looking around curiously.

“What did you see that was so interesting?”

Putting the tea on the table as I asked, Lui said shyly, “I’ve never seen flowers so close before.”

“The grass, dirt, it’s our first time in a forest…”

Arthur blurted in a low voice.

“Eh… have you perhaps never been outside before?”

The two nodded.

“The day we met you, first time outside.”

I received a shock at those words.

What the hell… does that mean they were confined!?

“We stayed in a room in a tower the whole time.”
“Was locked.”

As I thought…

“Why did they do something like that to you…”

I was so angry that I clenched my fists tightly.
The two looked at each other, turned over sadly and muttered in a muffled voice.

“Abominations, that’s why…”

Abominations??

“Mhm. So you guys were twins.”
“”!!??””

While I was tilting my head in puzzlement, Richmond suddenly came out from behind me, and I thought my heart would stop.

“Richmond, please don’t come out all of a sudden, you scared me silly!”
“Sorry about that, Kanade. However, I didn’t realize they were twins.”

Huh? I didn’t tell Richmond that they were twins, did I? How did he know?

“Ah, let me introduce him to you two. This person is Richmond. He’s a dragon and a member of my family.”
“”Dragon!?””
“Mhm. I am Kanade’s family. Now that you are part of the family, you can call me Grandpa.”

Lui and Arthur froze with their mouths open as Richmond introduced himself.

Now, with the two who had frozen in surprise at Grandpa Dragon’s appearance, the four of us drank barley tea together, and the twins were finally able to relax.

Lui then asked.

“Umm, you have been calling us your ‘family’ since a while ago, but… what do you mean by that??”

Richmond and I looked at each other and laughed, and the twins smiled as well.

“Family is a family. The two of you are our children now.”
“Mhm. I’m your grandpa.”

“We, abominations…”
“That’s right! We are abominations, that’s why…”

I spoke to the two, who let out voices that were on the brink of crying.

“I don’t know what is so abominable about you, and I don’t care. I have already considered you my family, so you are my children!”